Kartarpur Sahib Damage | 20 Apr 2020

Why in News

India has asked Pakistan to attend to repair and reconstruction of parts of Kartarpur Sahib gurudwara that were damaged in a storm on April 18, 2020.

  • The shrine in Pakistan’s Narowal district, built where founder of the Sikh faith, Guru Nanak Dev, lived the last years of his life, is highly revered by followers of the faith and other worshippers in India and the world.

Key Points

  • Kartarpur Sahib is in the midst of year long festivities associated with the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak.
  • It has emerged as a major centre of Sikh pilgrimage in Pakistan over the last few months, after the corridor from India was operationalised.
  • The corridor connects the Kartar Sahib Gurdwara in Narowal district of Pakistan with the Dera Baba Nanak shrine in Gurdaspur district in India’s Punjab province.
  • Katarpur Sahib
    • Guru Nanak Dev travelled through many countries spreading the message of universal peace, harmony and love before finally arriving in Kartarpur in 1521.
    • The then-governor of the region, Duni Chand, donated 100 acres of land on the bank of river Ravi to him.
    • Kartarpur became a religious site after he settled there.
    • The foundation stone of the gurdwara in Kartarpur was laid in 1572 and Maharaja Ranjit Singh covered its dome with gold.
    • The present structure was built by Bhupinder Singh, the Maharaja of Patiala in 1925.

Guru Nanak Dev

  • Guru Nanak Dev Jayanti is observed to celebrate the birth of Guru Nanak Dev (1469-1539), who is first of the 10 Sikh Gurus and the founder of Sikhism.
  • He advocated the 'Nirguna' (devotion to and worship of formless divine) form of bhakti.
  • He rejected sacrifices, ritual baths, image worship, austerities and the scriptures of both Hindus and Muslims.
  • He organised his followers into a community. He set up rules for congregational worship (Sangat) involving collective recitation.
  • The fifth preceptor, Guru Arjan Dev, compiled Guru Nanak Dev’s hymns along with those of his four successors and other religious poets like Baba Farid, Ravidas (also known as Raidas) and Kabir in the Adi Granth Sahib.
  • These hymns, called 'Gurbani', are composed in many languages.
  • In the late seventeenth century the tenth preceptor, Guru Gobind Singh, included the compositions of the ninth guru, Guru Tegh Bahadur, and this scripture was called the Guru Granth Sahib.

Source: TH